Education

The biggest challenges facing our schools in Penrith and The Border are those of distance and sparsity. We have the country’s smallest secondary school and its smallest sixth form college. The threat of closure is ever present for many of Cumbria’s smallest and most rural primary and secondary schools. We must do all we can to protect our schools: they form the life and heart of every village.

My colleagues and I have lobbied the Education Minister strongly to ensure the National School Funding formula recognises the unique needs of our rural schools, and provides them with additional financial support. I have worked closely with head-teachers and Cumbria County Council to establish a fair allocation of resources in Cumbria, favouring our smaller schools.

The formula is complex, as the tangible impact on each school can vary so significantly. I would urge any rural school concerned about their budget plans to get in touch and to work with me to ensure rural communities remain a place for young families, with a local school at their heart.

Local MP Rory Stewart on Friday visited Kirkby Stephen Primary School, where he enjoyed a tour of the school, meetings with staff, and introductions to pupils both in the classroom and in assembly, where he led an energetic debate on the role of politicians and politics, the process of passing laws, and the needs of […]

Rory Stewart MP has today awarded ten home-educated children from the Penrith area with the John Muir Award, a certificate which acknowledges the work that the young people have undertaken over the course of five weeks spent in the Lake District National Park and learning about how to care for the environment. As part of […]

Local MP, Rory Stewart, has welcomed a decision by the Local Government Ombudsman which will see a number of families in the Ravenstonedale community reimbursed for school transport costs charged by Cumbria County Council. Following the closure of Ravenstonedale Endowed School earlier this year, the council charged them for transport to the nearest open primary […]

Rory Stewart, Parliamentary candidate for Penrith and The Border, was invited to present Bewcastle Primary School’s poetry prizes, awarded to winning students from each year group. The author of three best-selling books – and currently working on his fourth, focused on his walk across Cumbria – Rory Stewart had the opportunity to read the students’ […]

The Penrith and The Border Parliamentary candidate, Rory Stewart, was invited on Friday, to speak with students at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School on his experiences walking across Afghanistan in 2002 – which he would later write up into a New York Times Bestselling book, The Places in Between. Rory introduced the history, culture, and religion […]

Rory Stewart, Parliamentary candidate for Penrith and The Border, met with the headteacher and head of Sixth Form at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School on Friday to hear concerns about funding for rural schools. The QEGS senior management team explained the difficulties and challenges they are facing, and Rory Stewart promised to work with them, and […]

Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and The Border, joined other Cumbrian MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates, in a Question Time style panel event organised by Young Cumbria, to give young people the opportunity to raise the issues that matter most to them. Aged between 13 – 25, the audience questioned the panel on how their […]

Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and The Border, along with fellow Cumbrian MPs John Stevenson, Jamie Reed, John Woodcock and Sir Tony Cunningham, last week welcomed members of the Cumbria Youth Parliament to Westminster in the first meeting of its kind. Rory spent two hours in discussion with the young Cumbrians, Organised by Cumbria County […]

Rory Stewart MP is in discussions with Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education, about the “intolerable” situation regarding school transport for 16-18 year olds in Cumbria. The MP in discussions raised the importance and uniqueness of Cumbrian needs, and pressed her to make sure that Cumbria’s needs would be considered in the next comprehensive […]

Rory Stewart MP on Friday spent time with Wigton’s Nelson Thomlinson School’s Young Enterprise group of Year 12 students, who presented to him their ‘Cumbria Unwrapped’ product of edible products from the Cumbria. The enterprising students have identified a gap in the market for packaging Cumbrian-produced products in gift hampers presented on local pieces of […]